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The People’s Forum, a New York City-based organization registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is preparing to host an October 24 event featuring Omali Yeshitela, whose conviction for conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian government without notifying U.S. authorities was upheld by a federal appeals court in August.
The event, titled We Will Not Be Silenced: Defending Dissent & Building Resistance to Political Repression, is promoted as a hybrid gathering, with in-person attendance at The People’s Forum’s Manhattan headquarters and online participation. The organizers frame the event around what they describe as “escalating censorship, attacks on protest, political expression, immigrant and labor rights, and Palestine solidarity.” Convened by the Ida B. Wells Media Defense Network, it will also feature Vijay Prashad, executive director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, and Charisse Burden-Stelly, a historian and political economist.
The network’s own announcement encourages attendees to arrive early for “a special message from Mumia Abu-Jamal.” Abu-Jamal was convicted of first-degree murder in 1982 for the December 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner and subsequently sentenced to death. His death sentence was later overturned, and he is serving life imprisonment without parole.
The gathering comes as both The People’s Forum and Tricontinental face congressional subpoenas in an investigation into funding associated with Shanghai-based businessman Neville Roy Singham and alleged Chinese Communist Party influence operations. Both organizations face an October 20 compliance deadline set by the House Ways and Means Committee, just four days before the event.
Speaker Convicted in Russian Foreign-Agent Conspiracy
Yeshitela, the founder and chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), was among four defendants convicted in September 2024 of conspiring to act as agents of the Russian government without notifying the U.S. attorney general. On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the convictions, detailing years of cooperation between APSP members and Aleksandr Ionov, the head of the Russian government-backed Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia.
The court identified Ionov as an asset of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) who regularly communicated with FSB officers Yegor Popov and Aleksei Sukhodolov about the organization’s activities. According to the ruling, Ionov financed trips to Moscow for APSP leadership, sponsored demonstrations in the United States, and directed party members to publish statements supporting Russian government positions.
In July 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ionov and his Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia for their involvement in Kremlin-backed influence operations targeting the United States and its allies.
Yeshitela accepted invitations to travel to Russia in 2015, including an expenses-paid trip to a Moscow conference organized by Ionov’s movement. The gathering, which brought together separatist movements from the United States and Europe, was partly financed through a Russian state grant from the National Charity Fund, an organization founded at Vladimir Putin’s initiative. According to The Guardian’s reporting, Yeshitela called for recognition of African people’s right to “engage in armed defence against American colonialism” and thanked the Russian organizers.
Following one of his visits, Yeshitela acknowledged the group’s Russian government connections in a communication cited by the court, stating: “it is clear that it is instrument of Russian government. This does not disturb us.”
Yeshitela has also publicly called for the abolition of the State of Israel. During a December 2023 address, later transcribed by his party’s newspaper, The Burning Spear, he urged Jews to “join in with the people in the destruction of colonialism” under Palestinian leadership. He also declared: “Palestine cannot be free as long as there is an Israel.”
Host Venue and Prashad’s Institute Face Congressional Subpoenas
The event’s second speaker, Vijay Prashad, leads Tricontinental, another American tax-exempt nonprofit under investigation by the House Ways and Means Committee. On October 13, Committee Chairman Jason Smith renewed demands for documents from Tricontinental, The People’s Forum, and BreakThrough News, following subpoenas issued in July.
The committee is investigating the organizations’ financial relationships with Neville Roy Singham, an American technology entrepreneur living in Shanghai whom congressional investigators have linked to Chinese Communist Party influence activities. According to the committee, The People’s Forum has received more than $20 million from Singham-associated funding sources.
In a February 9 letter addressed directly to Prashad, Smith identified multiple relationships between Tricontinental and Chinese institutions. The letter reported that Tricontinental paid $2,196,176 in 2024 to the Shanghai-based Maku Group for research, analysis, and translation services. It also described a 2021 cooperation arrangement involving Tricontinental, Maku, and East China Normal University’s School of Communication aimed at circulating Chinese-language and English-language material internationally and promoting China’s perspectives abroad.
The committee further identified Prashad as a senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China and cited Singham’s position as chairman of Tricontinental’s International Advisory Board. Congressional investigators have questioned whether these relationships involve improper foreign influence and whether the organizations qualify for continued tax-exempt status.
Third Speaker Belongs to Group That Praised October 7 Attack
The third featured speaker, Charisse Burden-Stelly, is an associate professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University and the author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States. Burden-Stelly identifies herself as a member of both the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and Community Movement Builders (CMB). The two organizations also maintain a formal relationship, with CMB serving as BAP’s fiscal sponsor.
In an October 7, 2025 statement, marking two years since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Black Alliance for Peace reiterated its characterization of the massacre as a “legitimate resistance operation” by Palestinians.
Congressional Subpoena Deadline Looms Ahead of October 24 Event
The October 24 event is scheduled just four days after the congressional subpoena compliance deadline facing its host venue and Prashad’s institute. The Ways and Means Committee has warned that continued noncompliance with its subpoenas could lead to depositions of organizational leaders as investigators pursue their inquiry into foreign-linked financing in the American nonprofit sector.